


Coming Home

by Bethalous



Series: Agents of the Universes [4]
Category: Eureka
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash, Series 4 AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-07
Updated: 2014-04-07
Packaged: 2018-01-18 12:52:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1429246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bethalous/pseuds/Bethalous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack has to settle into this new universe and keep more secrets. One was bound to come out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously Stark should've come back in Series 4. So here he is.

Jack jumped out of his car and ran into the bunker.

“Sarah! Sarah!” he shouted as he entered the building, worried when the SMART house didn’t automatically greet him. Surely Control wouldn’t have changed too much.

“Good morning, sheriff. What appears to be the problem?”

“Is Zoe still at Harvard?” he asked hurriedly, his voice shaky from nervousness.

“Of course she is. Has something happened sheriff?”

“No. No, everything’s fine,” he mumbled, relief flooding through him. “Thanks Sarah.” He had been worried that Control might change her, though he had made them promise not to – he didn’t completely trust them, despite always doing as ordered. He smiled as the coffee machine went off and he gladly took the mug, thanking Sarah for her foresight. She knew him so well that sometimes he had difficulty remembering she wasn’t actually a person and he couldn’t recruit her. He sighed at that thought; he hadn’t found anyone here that he thought was worth mentioning to Control – except one, and he was gone now. Shaking his head to force the melancholic thoughts from his mind, Jack had Sarah pull up the town’s history since he arrived in Eureka. There weren’t any dramatic changes, just a few cases that ended with different solutions and some minor ones that he hadn’t actually experienced. He frowned as he came across the date of Weinbrenner’s time-loop disaster. There was something not right about the information he was reading.

“Sarah, can you explain this event to me?” he asked, indicating the report in from of him that had clearly been written by him.

“Of course, sheriff. You and Doctor Weinbrenner became trapped in a 10-hour time-loop when he attempted to decelerate a photon. When Doctor Weinbrenner attempted to fix the problem he was, in your words, ‘turned to charcoal’. You then managed to convey the problem to Doctor Stark and together with him and Fargo, you saved the day.”

“And what happened to Stark?” Jack hated to ask – he didn’t want to think about the man anymore – but he needed to know.

“After saving the day, he called off his wedding to Doctor Blake. He has since been made head of R&D at Global Dynamics, having refused the job of Director. This position was filled by Doctor Fargo.”

A tiny part of Jack’s mind took the time to think that it was a good job he was sitting down and wonder about the safety of having Fargo running GD, before all thoughts were swept aside by the pure joy he felt at knowing Nathan Stark was alive. He knew he was laughing, somewhat hysterically, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop; he was just so pleased.

“Sheriff, are you sure everything is alright?”

“Yeah, Sarah. Everything’s perfect.”

 

 

After talking to Henry and the others though, it seemed everything wasn’t perfect. Henry was married to a stranger, Jo and Zane never dated, and Andy was his deputy. The last thing wasn’t such a problem but he liked having Jo as a partner. He was pleased for Fargo and Allison, what with their new jobs and Kevin acting like a normal teenager but the appearance of Trevor Grant made him want to shoot something. When Control had said he would have to pretend to change the timeline, this wasn’t what he had agreed to. He was fine with having to keep their time travel a secret (he was already keeping a big one after all) but he agreed with Henry that people were bound to notice that they weren’t quite the same – they had no way of knowing if their personalities were meant to be different. He wished he had gotten a little bit more information from Control when he had agreed to the change but it was too late now; he couldn’t contact them for at least a month unless there was an emergency. He spent the day talking with his time travel troop (he and Fargo had decided on the name, much to the chagrin of the others) about everything that was different and trying to avoid everyone else. He breathed a sigh of relief as he left the sheriff’s station where the meeting had taken place, and failed to notice the person walking up to him as he stepped towards his car.

“Carter, working late, I see.”

Jack froze at the sensations that ran through his body upon hearing that voice. It had been too long. Turning slowly, he tried to school his features so he gave nothing away when he was finally face to face with Nathan Stark.

“Stark,” he said nonchalantly, surprised by the tiny frown that appeared on the other’s face at his greeting.

“Have I upset you?” Nathan asked, concern so evident in his voice that it took Jack aback.

“No, of course not,” he hastened to reassure the other man. “You just surprised me, that’s all.” He could tell that his excuse wasn’t being bought so he tried for an escape.

“I'm really tired, Stark, so could whatever it is wait?”

“That depends, Sheriff. Will you, Henry, Allison, Jo and Fargo still be here then, or will you have travelled to another time?”

His question instantly caused Jack’s brain to shut down. He just stood there, staring at Nathan in shock and horror. When he showed no sign of moving, Nathan’s face became a picture of worry.

“Jack? Jack, it’s okay,” he said soothingly and, for some reason, Jack felt his stomach unclench.

“How did you know?” he stuttered as he sank back against his car, his legs feeling too weak to hold him.

“I'm not an idiot, Jack. Fargo is acting like he only just got the job of Director, Allison looked at me as though she’d seen a ghost, and Henry deflected all of my queries before practically running away. I did bit of research on your friend Grant and from there the leap wasn’t exactly hard.” He looked Jack up and down, considering him, but for what, Jack didn’t know.

“What?” he asked eventually, his voice more defensive than he meant it to be. Nathan raised an eyebrow at him, questioning his mood, and Jack couldn’t help the thought that he needed to stop hanging out with people who thought eyebrows were a form of communication.

“I'm allowed to snap,” he said, voice still defensive, “I don’t know what you’re going to do now that you know.” Nathan scowled at the obvious lack of trust but Jack didn’t take his words back. He may be in love with the man but this might not be the man he fell for.

“I wouldn’t do anything that could hurt you,” Nathan said directly.

“Well, I suppose that’s true. You wouldn’t want Allison or Henry to get into trouble.”

“No, I wouldn’t,” Nathan said slowly, “But I care more about keeping you safe.”

Jack snapped his eyes up to meet Nathan’s, astounded by the sheer honesty.

“Oh,” he said quietly. He didn’t know what else to say.

“Jack.” Suddenly, Nathan was right in front of him, their chests brushing. “Why don’t we go and talk?”

“Yeah,” Jack breathed, and indicated for him to get into the car behind. “Sarah expected me an hour ago.”

“Then we best not keep her waiting any longer.”

As he drove back home, sitting in comfortable silence with Nathan beside him, Jack thought about how he needed to send Control a huge ‘thank you’ for the changes. He could get use to this universe.


End file.
